AG Heinzelmann, 25.11.2024 Preimplantation polygenic testing: a comeback of determinism and eugenics?

Since the Human Genome Project, the role of genetic information in our lives has changed dramatically. Genetic testing, originally used to detect or prevent congenital, often deadly or incapacitating diseases, has shifted to the management of risk for common adult conditions in the general population, and even to health optimization. Polygenic genetic testing, now available to clients via the Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) market, promises to estimate traits like weight or physical endurance, or the risk of complex conditions like diabetes or hypercholesterolemia. As these traits are affected by the interaction of several genomic variants and environmental factors, companies offering these tests promise to guide consumers toward a healthier lifestyle tailored to their genome. These genomic technologies have recently expanded to the assessment of embryos in the context of In Vitro Fertilization with the launch of preimplantation polygenic testing (PGT-P). PGT-P companies promise parents undergoing fertility treatments to use their embryos’ genomic information to predict their risk of developing common, multifactorial diseases like diabetes or psychiatric disorders in adulthood. This information results in a ‘ranking’ of the embryos, to help prioritize the “best” for transfer and obtaining “the healthiest child possible”. Moreover, these companies have raised the possibility of offering predictions on IQ, height, or skin color in the future if such tests become socially acceptable. In this talk, I will show that, despite being based on the same technology as the DTC tests offered to adults, the discourse of the companies offering PGT-P downplays the importance of the environment and one’s own agency in health outcomes. This marks a return to genetic determinism, previously relaxed by the ideas of agency and risk management typical of neoliberal biopolitics. I will also argue that the discourse on PGT-P has reinvigorated eugenicist ideas in the public sphere. These dynamics are sustained by an unwarranted expansion of the concept of ‘eugenics’, coupled with misleading analogies between embryo selection and individual or public health interventions, such as vaccination or sanitation. As a result, the idea of embryo selection is first equated to other kinds of reproductive or life choices and then presented as an ethical obligation both for parents and the whole of society.

About Alejandra Petino Zappala:

Dr. Alejandra Petino Zappala is a Research Associate at the DKFZ (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum), where she contributes to a third-party funded project on vaccine ethics. She earned her Ph.D. in Biosciences from the University of Buenos Aires in 2017 and has since focused on various aspects of the philosophy of biological and health sciences.